Rackham Holistic Admissions Consultation
The Rackham Holistic Admissions Consultation team will, upon request, provide tailored support for individual doctoral programs through work with their admissions committee. The Rackham consultation team will meet with the program’s admissions committee at the outset of the process to learn about current practices and needs in the program. That information, as well as program admissions data over the previous five years, will be used to create program-specific recommendations and a holistic admissions rubric. A second optional meeting with the program admissions committee to discuss recommendations will conclude the process, although the Rackham consultation team will continue to be available for follow-up questions.
Having launched in May 2022, the Rackham Holistic Admissions Consultation team is currently available to work with individual doctoral admissions committees, and the program is expected to continue for three years. While scheduling preference will be initially given to programs who have relied upon the GRE general test in doctoral admissions, we look forward to working with all interested programs over the course of this initiative.
Rackham Holistic Admissions Consultation Team
The Rackham Holistic Admissions Consultation Team is comprised of faculty and staff with decades of experience in holistic review and in doctoral admissions:
Anna Mapp
Associate Dean of Biological & Health Sciences, Rackham Graduate School; Edwin Vedejs Collegiate Professor of Chemistry, LSA; Research Professor, Life Sciences Institute. Mapp served as an admissions committee chair in the Program in Chemical Biology for 10 years and oversaw the transition to a GRE-free, holistic admissions process. As associate dean, she co-leads the Rackham Holistic Admissions workshop.
Melanie Sanford
Moses Gomberg Distinguished University Professor; Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry, LSA. Sanford served as chemistry graduate chair for five years and has >10 years’ experience on Ph.D. and M.S. admissions committees in one of the largest graduate programs in LSA.
Ida Faye Webster
Director of Rackham Program Review and Director of RMF Evaluation and Administration. Webster has >20 years experience in graduate education and over >10 years working with Rackham program leadership sharing best practices from across campus.
Kristen Jensen
Manager for Rackham Associate Deans’ Initiatives. Jensen is highly experienced in project management. She has been with Rackham since 2017 and has over 20 years in the non-profit education sector. Jensen’s a passionate generalist who enjoys dissecting a project at both the macro and micro levels.
Scheduling a Consultation
If your program is interested in working with the Holistic Admissions Consultation team, please complete the Rackham Holistic Admissions Consultation form, and we will reach out to schedule.
- The process requires at least one one-hour meeting between the consultation team and the program admissions committee.
- A second meeting after the evaluation is complete and recommendations have been provided is encouraged but not mandated.
Other Mechanisms to Support Individual Programs
Summer Funding for Rackham Programs to Support GRE Discontinuation Transition
For summer 2024, Rackham will provide funding for up to three faculty members to work on revisions to their program’s admissions process; the level of summer salary funding is one half-month of a summer ninth.
Holistic Admissions Workshops
Holistic admissions practices are an integral part of achieving both diversity and excellence when admitting graduate student cohorts. This workshop is designed to provide concrete strategies and evidence-based practices to support faculty and program goals in admitting diverse and excellent cohorts of graduate students. This workshop will provide members of graduate admissions committees an opportunity to develop their own holistic admissions tools.